Case History 1: Alicia And Her Father
Alicia M. was ten years old when she was brought to a clinic for psychiatric treatment. For four years she had been involved in an incestuous relationship with her father. It was Alicia's distraught mother who brought the matter to the authorities, but only after Alicia had talked outside the family about her continuing sexual relationship with her father. She told her mother of the oral intercourse indulged in by her father and also related an episode of a paternal uncle molesting her sexually just prior to her father's first contact with her. Alicia's mother recalled that during these four years she went out once a week regularly to play bridge with a group of friends who lived on the other side of town and she feared returning earlier than her expected time because of what she suspected was going on between the father and Alicia. She was most reluctant to know the truth regarding her husband and her daughter and preferred to assume an unknowing air, even though her suspicions were so strong.
There was a decided history of extremely unsettled environment in Alicia's family and this was obvious not only from her own experience but also from the description of her one older brother and two younger sisters. Greg, aged eleven had recently been involved in a service station break-in and also had frequent trouble in school regarding homosexual activities. He was a very poor student in school and a frequent truant. Susan, aged eight, was a lovely blonde, blue-eyed child who was decidedly hyperactive and destructive. She would scream for hours on end when not allowed her own way and took great joy in tearing apart her dolls, sometimes even butchering them with kitchen knives. It became necessary for the entire family to closely watch Susan for fear she would harm herself, for she had already tried to slash her own wrists as she had mutilated a favorite doll of the youngest sister, Beth. There wasn't a babysitter to be found who would take on the responsibility of taking care of Susan in the absence of her parents. The added burden of being constant watchdog over Susan did little to promote favorable family relations. Six-year-old Beth was a quiet, withdrawn, sullen child, given to long sessions of moping and apathy. She was very small for her age and looked physically underdeveloped. She spoke infrequently and when she did verbalize, it was in soft whispers of a few words. Although it was time that she should be enrolled in elementary school, authorities had suggested that Beth be kept at home for another year to allow for further physical development. It had been vaguely suggested that Beth be placed in a county institution for the mentally handicapped, but her mother was adamant in refusing to even discuss the matter.
Alicia's mother had become pregnant with Alicia after knowing and dating the father for almost a year. Since they were not married at this time, Alicia's mother told no one about her pregnancy and received no prenatal care. She refused to see the maternal grandmother after Alicia's birth. At that time, the father was in the service and received an emergency furlough in order to get married. During her first few years of life, Alicia was placed in many different foster homes and lived with various relatives as well. She was described by her parents as unmanageable during the periods when she did not live with them. Both her mother and father beat Alicia often. Evidently her behavior improved at about the time she began attending school.
Alicia's father was the third oldest of a family of seven; four boys and three girls. The paternal grandfather was a sales representative and was away from home most of the time. There was a child born of incestuous relations between a paternal sister and brother. This was not taken as any great scandal in the family circle. The new-born child was accepted without comment or interest.
Alicia's parents were not happily married. They had "Lost touch with each other" over the years and were now almost strangers with nothing in common apart from their children. The father worked steadily as a clerk in a supermarket and handled all the family finances. Although there was a steady income, mother always felt there was little money or other supplies available from the father. After his imprisonment for his sexual offense, Alicia's mother, for the first time, took over the household management. She had little notion of what this role involved and was particularly inefficient in food budgeting, often spending large amounts of money, yet frequently the family went hungry. After the father's imprisonment, the mother obtained a divorce and then moved into the worst slum neighborhood of the city, where a friend had obtained a dirt-encrusted apartment for her. In talking about this move, it became clear that she was depressed and that the selection of that particular dim and dark apartment was an external manifestation of this depression. She revealed at this time that she-had been upset and distraught for many long periods and spoke particularly of the period following the birth of her third child. In the hospital, even though receiving tranquilizers for her depression, she lay in bed trembling, wondering what was going on between her husband and Alicia. Indeed, at that time sexual contact between father and daughter was both oral and genital.
Alicia was ten when she was first seen for diagnostic evaluation. She was a tall, pretty, fair-haired girl who outwardly had an air of assurance. She showed an eagerness to relate, and readily displayed her dependent need for care of any kind. For example, in a psychological testing session she talked at length about needing "daddy's loving his fucking," while "mommy won't let us be together." The diagnostic study revealed that when her dependent wishes were stimulated, Alicia became threatened by depression and anxiety over loss. She dealt with this through hyperactivity and could not tolerate the passive receptive role. Alicia's ability to utilize her intellectual and emotional capacities was markedly hampered by the energy which went into the denial of her infantile needs. Although a bright child, Alicia functioned at a borderline level in school. She had to repeat a grade for the first time the year of her father's imprisonment.
In-depth study revealed that Alicia saw her mother as a dependent little girl who wanted the rest of the family to take care of her, feed her, and not desert her. As part of the care, she felt that the mother wanted the sexual relationship between the girl and her father. The tests did not indicate that she felt guilty over this incestuous sexual relationship. Rather, she showed depression and regret over separation from her father and saw the relationship as one of mutual feeling. In the sexual relationship the male was seen as entering and taking or entering and biting rather than the more usual sexual conception of entering and giving.
In response to one Thematic Apperception Test card the following view came to light regarding the incest experience: "She went to the show to meet a boyfriend, and when she came back, her mother asked, 'What were you doing?' and she said, 'Just talking.' Mother said, 'Oh, no, I was watching. Didn't father tell you not to fuck?' And she said, 'Yes, but don't tell the police,' and they agreed never to tell the police on him." When asked, "How did it turn out?" Alicia said, "When she grows up she marries him and they take the mother to live with them."
After prolonged diagnostic study, Alicia was referred for both individual and group therapy. Her mother, however, was unable to follow through on the recommendation for individual treatment and Alicia was seen in group treatment only.
There was one particularly informative group session in which Alicia was able to discuss her first encounter with her father in depth. The following narration is in the form as recorded by Alicia's group therapist.
THERAPIST: Alicia, do you feel you want to discuss what happened between yourself and your father that very first time you had intercourse together?
ALICIA: Sure, I don't mind telling you what happened the first time we fucked. Daddy and I had been fooling around for a long time ever since I was about six, I liked to put me on his lap and play with me. He'd ran his hand over my body, after he took my clothes off, and then he'd bend down to kiss me. Sometimes he pushed his tongue into my mouth and played with my tongue. That was fun! And then he'd bend down and lick my nipples, sometimes even biting on them. I didn't have any titties like mommy did and I still don't, but daddy would lick me all over, his spit dribbling over my body. And then he would take off his clothes and ask me to hold his cock for him, "to warm it up." I liked doing that. It would start to get bigger and harder, until my hand could hardly hold it. And it would sort of wave at me, almost tingling under my fingertips as daddy kept telling me to hold onto it. And then daddy told me to kiss it. At first I didn't want to do that because I thought he'd pee on my hands, but when daddy began to put his hand between my legs and let his finger poke into my cunt hole, I felt I should do something for him. I was beginning to feel sort of warm and tingly inside, almost like having goose bumps but deep inside my tummy. Daddy's cock smelled kind of strange, but I bent down and kissed it. And then I became frightened as I felt something warm and wet come out of the end of it. Daddy pushed my head down tighter and held it there. I couldn't do anything but take that white stuff into my mouth. At first I was afraid to swallow it, but when I finally did, I found that it didn't taste so bad after all.
THERAPIST: Alicia, was that the first time you had ever performed fellatio on your father?
ALICIA: 'Fellatio?' Is that another way to say I was sucking his cock?
THERAPIST: Yes.
ALICIA: Well-almost. There had been other times when daddy had asked me to just sort of kiss it. I did kiss it when he would put his mouth between my legs and licked my cunt. But I had never before swallowed any of his goo. This was the first time I had ever done that.
THERAPIST: Please go on, Alicia.
ALICIA: Well, after that first little squirting from daddy's prick, I felt a change in daddy. He began to shake and moan so loudly I thought he would wake the kids sleeping in the other room. And then all this white stuff came running out of his cock, splashing all over me, my face, my neck, shoulders, hands everywhere. I knew daddy wanted me to eat it, so I tried my best. I could hardly see what I was doing, but I smelled it. I can still remember the smell today. I used to call it "daddy's milk" and my father would laugh as he'd ask me to "drink up the milk it's good for you." One day after "drinking his milk," my father said he was going to do something different. He said he was going to get inside me that it might hurt for a little while, but then it would be all right. He told me to be very still and do just as he asked. He began to finger my slit and I know I was getting juicy as hell because I could hear the slurping sounds as his finger went in and out of my hole. He would stop once in awhile and lick his fingers and then would smile at me as he said he loved my cunt juice. After he had sloshed around in my hole with his fingers, he moved over me, his cock dangling down over my belly. He pushed my legs far apart and then brought his body down over mine, pressing against my thighs and belly tightly. I could feel his hard cock pushing down against me and then I began to feel the pain. I remember I started to scream, but daddy put his hand across my mouth. I also remember struggling under him I guess I was trying to get away, because the pain was terrible. Daddy kept whispering to me to be quiet or we'd be in a lot of trouble, but all I could think of was the pain at my cunt. And then....
THERAPIST: What is wrong, Alicia? Do you feel you can't go on?
ALICIA: Oh, no, it's not that. I can go on ... but you see ... I must have blacked out just then, because I can't really remember exactly what happened after that. What I really remember is sort of getting up and feeling my pussy. It was all wet and gooey and when I looked at my fingers, they were covered with a pink-red mess. I suppose it was blood and daddy's come. I sure hurt like hell down there and I wanted to get cleaned up. And then I saw daddy. He had a basin and a cloth and he was leaning down to wash me. First he cleaned my face and said he was "sorry" for what he had done. He begged that I forgive him. And then he worked over my pussy hole, washing away the mess. I didn't want him to feel sorry for what he had done I wasn't sorry at all. I knew that now I would be able to have him the way mommy did. His cock would be mine now and we would be able to really fuck now.
After daddy had washed me, I asked him to fuck me again. He looked at me strangely and asked if I knew what I was saying. Sure I knew what I was saying. I wanted to fuck again with my father! That's what I needed! It didn't take daddy too long to rearrange himself and we went at it again. The second time I didn't want to scream from pain I wanted to scream from the pleasure of his prick as it banged against me. It was a great feeling having daddy on top of me and working over me just as if I were mommy. After awhile he squirted into me again and I could feel the warm stream of his come as it sloshed out of my cunt and ran down the inside of my legs. It sure turned me on!
THERAPIST: From that time on did you and your father indulge in frequent intercourse in this manner?
ALICIA: Oh, sure. As often as mother was away from home. I sort of think she was wise to us, but she wouldn't admit it. She stayed away from the house with all sorts of excuses more than she really needed, but daddy and I didn't mind. That gave us more time for all the fucking and sucking we wanted.
THERAPIST: Alicia, did you ever feel that what you and your father were doing was wrong? That you were hurting not only yourself, but your father and mother?
ALICIA: Well, I knew that the other kids weren't doing the same thing, because when I started bragging that daddy and I were fucking, they began to look at me strangely. Most of my old friends kept away from me and all the boys that hung around only wanted to stick their cocks into me, just the way daddy did. I guess my big mouth got me into trouble. I should have shut up and not said anything to anybody. After I began bragging, daddy and I didn't have too much longer for our fucking, because just before school ended for summer vacation, a policeman and a woman came to our apartment and that's when all this investigating started. Mother was upset as hell over it, but I guess she's settled down now that daddy has been taken away. But I still miss his fucking. I'd still like to have his cock inside me, pushing up and down and then squirting his warm goo into my pussy. It made me happy. I liked being able to do something for my father just like my mother.
Alicia's case history may once have been a rare occurrence in a Puritan society that frowned upon such incestuous relationships. But the society of the 70's is no longer Puritan it has become highly permissive, and incest is no longer as infrequent and shocking as it once was. Alicia is no longer in a minority who partake of sexual deviations and experience sexual gratification via incest. Alicia is a product of the times and her unnatural sexual behavior bears ample witness to the disturbed family unit that raised her. The blame lies on many, not only Alicia, and it is hoped that therapeutic sessions will assist Alicia in returning to a more normal life cycle, wherein she can progress in a socially acceptable childhood, becoming a well-adjusted individual, despite her past experiences.